Dead, sick animals found on farm outside of El Paso

Posted: Friday, April 05, 2002

The Associated Press

EL PASO (AP) - Starving horses, cows and pigs were found among the rotting carcasses of other animals on an isolated farm south of El Paso after police received a phone call about a foul smell in the area.

A man thought to be an owner of the farm, Julio Arreola, 29, was charged with animal cruelty, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail or up to $4,000 in fines. He was booked into the El Paso County Jail on Wednesday on $6,000 bond.

El Paso sheriff's deputies found six acres of packed dirt surrounded by a fence and furnished with a single barn and a few tractors. A bony horse leaned against the side of a barn and others had gnawed on the bark of a tree. No water was available.

A small colt lay motionless in the sun.

"We thought it was dead," sheriff's spokesman Rick Glancey said.

Border Patrol agents brought feed to the site. Later Wednesday, the Desert Valley 4-H Club rescued the animals and took them to pens in Clint.

Outside the fence, deputies found the remains of two horses and four piglets.